Driving through Middle Earth in the Year of Jacinda 5

On Covid, masks, pandemics and Clarke Gayford

My wife recently had an operation so she’s been in recovery mode for a few months now, this being the last week before she returns to work we decided to have a week away in Methven (it’s about 400km north of us) as they had some new hot pools there. The hot pools are fine by the way but we probably still prefer Hanmer Springs but then they’re at least another 2 hours north of Methven as well.

We’d found our favourite cafe in Methven as they wern’t too keen on silly mask rules and had a sign at the counter saying something like “RIP COVID & don’t come back”. Sorry didn’t get a photo of it.

BTW the Topp Twins cafe in Methven is underwhelming. Girls you need more than a few photos of yourselves around the cafe, for example some decent food goes far.

But anyway today we headed out of Methven and back to Dunedin. We decided to go the long way and it really was a beautiful day today 19°C (about 66/67°F) and not a cloud in the sky. First stop (other than Mayfield for gas) was Geraldine where we had lunch at the perfectly fine Running Duck (no gaslighting). On our way through Geraldine this shop is quite noticeable for its politics;

Q Foods Main St, Geraldine

They’ve found the Pfizer dump on the adverse reactions;

And have got some advice;

and sympathies;

Unfortunately this shop (Q Foods) was closed today otherwise they’d have definitely got some business from us. As I was photographing this a couple stopped to have a read themselves and I said to them ‘It’s all true” and one of them said “do you think so” in an enquiring voice to which I replied ‘yes definitely’.

A visit to the museum in Geraldine followed and even though they had a mask notice up neither of us were asked about it. A noticeable change I’d suggest from a few weeks ago.

Our next stop was Three Creeks for a coffee where the woman after saying something like ‘hopefully we don’t get the double variant’ which elicited my response of ‘it’s all bullshit’ said that her man (she was South African maybe it’s an Afrikaans thing) was of the same opinion.

Three Creeks near Burke’s Pass between Fairlie and Tekapo

After a brief stop in Tekapo for a standard lake photo;

Lake Tekapo with the Southern Alps in the background

And a church photo (we noticed that they’ve added a fence around the church - we don’t approve);

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo

We headed on towards Twizel where we figured we might grab some early dinner. On the way there, we saw this in the trees by the roadside;

Where’s Gayford, on the main road about 5km short of Twizel

Obviously someone is concerned about Jacinda’s boyfriend (the rumours are that he’s under arrest for drug running, rumours that are helped along by his disappearance from the public eye over the last few months).

Once we got to Twizel we found that unfortunately just about all the food places were closed. I did buy a turnover from the bakery that did have a mask sign up but I certainly wasn’t hassled about it.

None of the shops except the Pharmacy had any of the standard covid signs up in their windows. And the Hardware store went one further than that;

Jakes Hardare store in Twizel

After this it was a little late in the afternoon and light faded for us, especially as we took a detour to Lake Ohau.

But the message seems clear, you’re not welcome here anymore Jacinda. Fuck off.